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And, it’s a wrap!

A symphony of brilliant conversations unfolded as the titans of the Indian startup ecosystem came together under one roof at TechSparks 2023 in Delhi. Discussions on day two spanned artificial intelligence (AI), tech, content creation, finance, and beyond.

The day kicked off with an energetic pitch fest, providing budding entrepreneurs with a stage to showcase their innovative startups to prospective investors.

Next, ONDC’s (Open Network for Digital Commerce) T Koshy, FIDE’s Sujith Nair, and Pincode’s Vivek Lohcheb took a deep dive into the workings of open networks and their potential to influence the nation’s economy in the coming years. 

“It is about enabling the businesses that are present in those verticals. An ONDC network allows multiple players—smaller and bigger—to have a play. It has a play for bigger and smaller players to come together and coexist,” Lohcheb of Pincode, said.

In the same vein, Nair added, “Open network has a far more ability to scale and penetrate than one platform can and that unlocks the power.”

Digital lessons

Talking about growing sectors in India, how can the fintech market be missed?

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paytm, discussed the evolving fintech landscape and shared insights from the company’s IPO journey. Paytm has downsized its commerce arm due to growth challenges, emphasising payments as its core focus.

Sharing some valuable advice he also cautioned founders to stop wasting money on “irrelevant KPIs”, preserve cash, and reset metrics.

The day also saw an interesting conversation with Kunal Bahl, Co-founder of Titan Capital and Snapdeal. Talking about the journey with Snapdeal, he said, “We learned a lot of things in the process. Not everything is a mistake–some are circumstantial,”

Beyond that, he also inspired budding founders by emphasising the importance of embracing the highs and lows in the dynamic startup world.

Into the future

Post lunch, some interesting conversation brewed between Ankit Mehta, CEO, of ideaForge Technology, and Smit Shah, President, of the Drone Federation of India, about how India is racing towards becoming a drone hub. 

“Many people don’t believe India can become a leader in the hardware space. We need to bring it back,” Shah said.

In this digital world, politics is not far left behind when it comes to being tech-savvy. And Amit Malviya, National Head of Information Technology at Bharatiya Janata Party, agrees.

“Tech is the backbone of the entire operations we run. We work with the leading data scientists and startups. We are constantly innovating,” he said.

Next in line, InsuranceDekho Founder and CEO Ankit Agrawal talked about how empowering villages with advisors, providing health insurance, partnering with startups, and enabling gig workers to sell insurance can help foster livelihoods and make insurance accessible to all.

Steering the conversation to another pertinent topic—net zero future—Anjali Bansal of Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund, highlighted that startups dedicated to combating climate change secured a record $2.2 billion in funding in 2022.

Further, diving into blockchain and Web3, Ankit Anand (CoinDCX) and Kashif Raza (Bitinning) discussed the maturation of the industry with emerging global Web3 policies.

TechSparks Delhi 2023 ended with a bang with the poster boys of the startup world–Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal and Akshant Goyal. The duo traced their journey of building the foodtech giant from scratch to launching its IPO.

“Building a business has no rules, and that’s hard,” the duo said.

Talking more about the brand’s marketing skills, Deepinder said the only mandate the marketing team has is, ”Whenever you send a push notification, whenever you get a billboard, it should make the audience smile.”

Furthermore, the duo mentioned that the company has run out of money nearly six times.

While the curtains have fallen on this edition, YourStory hopes that the spark of entrepreneurship and passion forever remains ablaze in everyone’s heart!

A huge shout-out to our gifting partners: Sleepy Owl, True Elements, Amrutam, Ancient Roots, Chiran Tea, Conscious Chemist, Talentplace.ai, BySak, Nestle, and TESU. We thank them for helping us make TechSparks Delhi truly memorable for the attendees.